Enterprise Software Solutions

Enterprise Software Solutions - What is Expected From Smaller Businesses

With increasing materials costs and the global economic downturn, cutting expenses and costs is a major priority for small and large companies when sourcing enterprise software solutions or ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications.  That being said, companies can’t afford to jeopardize their customer service standards and consumer satisfaction levels at the short term benefit of saving a few dollars. The pressure to cut costs in this economic environment is tremendous, and it understandable how companies can get caught up in this cost cutting dilemma at the benefit of achieving this quarter’s earnings or profitability goals and ignoring future long term ramifications such as product and company market share and valuable customer retention.

Surveys from small and medium companies indicate that enterprise software solutions are instrumental in achieving the best results for reducing costs, improving order and delivery accuracy, and optimizing resources and inventory.

Key finding for companies using enterprise software systems to increase company performance reveal that:

• Costs were decreased by 19% at companies using enterprise software solutions
• Order and delivery accuracy increased by 18% at organizations using enterprise software solutions
• Admin costs were reduced by 21% at companies with enterprise software solutions
• The top 10% of companies using enterprise software solutions used 15% more of their software’s features and functionality
• The top 10% of companies using enterprise software solutions were 80% more likely to be using the current version of the app

Companies were able to reduce costs in three primary sectors

1. offering more operational visibility to business processes across the organization,
2. optimizing sales, accounting, finance, and administration funcitons
3. streamlining current space and capacity processes such as staffing, equipment, warehouse, fleet usage

In conclusion, in order to increase performance to match the best performing companies in your specific industry, a company should not only utilize the tools and rewards available in enterprise software solutions, it is critical that after the implementation and deployment of the application that the company train employees and fully utilize the enterprise solutions.  The use of the enterprise software application and it’s features should be available to every department and employee in the company, not only a handful of IT managers who implemented the ERP system and deployed it across the company. Top executives must spearhead the strategic and long term competitive importance of the enterprise application in order to get full enterprise wide adoption and usage. 

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